Cole Torode

Cole is the Director of Coffee at Rosso Coffee Roasters. Splitting his time between origin countries, while establishing relationships with producers, and his hometown of Calgary, while training baristas and focusing on quality control. Cole is a proud member of the specialty coffee industry and a perennial barista competitor. This year, Cole was crowned the Canadian Barista Champion and most recently finished 5th in the World Barista Championship.

Sammy Piccolo

Sammy is a Vancouver coffee legend and Broncos fan for life. He was the World Latte Art Champion in Singapore and a Coffee Fest Latte Art World Champion way back in March 2003. He is a four time Canadian Barista Champion and the only barista to ever finish in the top 3 in the World Barista Championship 4 times! Sammy is the owner and operator of Prado Cafe and the most recently opened Spade coffee.

Laura Perry

Laura is the co-founder of Lüna Coffee in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her MO is sourcing delightful, articulate coffees and a focus on light roasting to maintain vibrancy and sweetness. She loves good design, delicious food and floral natural wines.

Laura has spent more than a decade of her life in specialty coffee as a Barista, Cafe Manager and eventually a Barista Trainer of a 3rd Wave Specialty Coffee Chain in Ontario. Laura has been a Cup of Excellence Juror/Observer, certified as a Q grader and before opening Lüna Coffee in Vancouver she was a Supply Chain Manager and Green Buyer for 49th Parallel.

Laura competed as a Barista in the Eastern Regional Competitions in Canada and participated as a Judge for numerous Canadian Barista Championships.

Aaron Kafka

Aaron is the owner of Kafka’s Coffee. In addition to a passion for making coffee he also loves the conversation that goes along with it. Aaron has traveled to origin many times and strives to connect the consumer to the farmers. He has judged competitions at the regional and national level multiple times and always enjoys chatting with baristas. You can follow Aaron on Instagram and on Facebook

Les was part of that first group of Canadians to be certified as SCAA Lead Instructors in 2012. He was the Canadian National Body Representative for the Canadian Barista Championships from 2004-2015 and the Head Judge of the Canadian Barista Championships for several years before retiring in 2014.

Tristan Mapstone

Tristan has been a barista for over ten years and with Fernwood Coffee Co for more than five years now, where he trains and roasts when not on bar. Tristan has been a competitor many times over many years in local and national competitions. Tristan’s long history of competing and training gives him a keen eye when it comes to Latte Art and will offer a sound opinion to this event.

FREE to Enter – Online Grand Prize $1500! and In-person Grand Prize $2,500 totalling $4,000 total cash up for grabs to the top latte artist!

The Online Qualifier competition will officially launch at Midnight on July 1st 2018 and be open for voting until July 31st 2018 at 11:59pm PST where the Top 16 voted competitors will then be announced.

The Top 3 Qualifiers will win Cash and Prizes (Top Qualifier will win the Grand Prize of $1500) and ALL 16 Qualifiers will be invited to compete for more Cash and Prizes at a LIVE Event in Vancouver, BC with a Grand Prize of $2500! (Finals Date and Location to be announced)